System and method to optically authenticate physical objects

1. An optical system, comprising: multiple micro-camera imaging devices mechanically coupled to each other, each micro-camera imaging device configured to acquire one or more optical images of a distinct region of an object; an illumination source comprising one or more optical sources, each optical source configured to provide an optical illumination to the object; and a processor, wherein the processor is configured to convert optical images acquired by the more than one micro-camera and under the optical illumination sent by the one or more optical sources into an object dataset, wherein the processor is configured to convert the object dataset into one or more cryptographic keys.

2. The optical system of claim 1, wherein information regarding the optical images, the one or more cryptographic keys or the optical illumination is configured to provide a measure of authentication.

3. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the combination of the optical system and object is configured to form a physical unclonable function (PUF).

4. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the multiple micro-camera imaging devices and the illumination source are mechanically coupled to each other.

5. The optical system of claim 1, wherein at least two optical sources of the one or more optical sources are configured to illuminate the object with different wavelengths of light.

6. The optical system of claim 1, further comprising a digital communication link to send and receive information to another party regarding the one or more cryptographic keys or the optical illumination used to generate the optical images from which the one or more cryptographic keys are derived.

7. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the processor comprises a processing circuitry contained on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

8. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to store the one or more cryptographic keys with information regarding the optical illumination used to generate the optical images from which the one or more cryptographic keys are derived.

9. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to receive a request from another party to repeat acquiring optical images of the object under a different type of optical illumination.

10. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the object dataset is converted from a plurality of optical images, wherein the plurality of optical images comprise multiple optical images acquired by the multiple micro-camera imaging devices with the optical illumination varied between each acquisition.

11. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the object dataset is converted from a plurality of optical images, wherein the a plurality of optical images comprise multiple optical images acquired by the more than one micro-camera imaging devices under multiple optical illumination comprising different wavelengths of light.

12. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the object dataset is converted from a plurality of optical images, wherein the a plurality of optical images comprise multiple optical images acquired by the more than one micro-camera imaging devices with the object physically scanned to more than one location.

13. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the one or more cryptographic keys are configured to provide a measure of object uniqueness by being compared to newly generated one or more cryptographic keys from optical images acquired at a later time or by being compared to one or more stored cryptographic keys.

14. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the one or more cryptographic keys are configured to provide a measure of authentication by being compared to different one or more cryptographic keys using an authentication protocol.

15. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the one or more cryptographic keys are configured to provide a measure of authentication by being compared to different one or more cryptographic keys using a challenge-and-response scheme.

16. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the one or more cryptographic keys are compared to one or more stored cryptographic keys to provide information on changes to the object, wherein the changes to the object comprise at least one of damage, use, or fading of material properties over time.

17. An optical system, comprising: multiple micro-camera imaging devices, wherein each micro-camera imaging device is configured to acquire one or more optical images of a distinct region of an object; an illumination source, wherein the illumination source comprise one or more optical sources, wherein each optical source is configured to provide an optical illumination to the object; and a processor, wherein the processor is configured to generate one or more cryptographic keys based on optical images acquired by the multiple micro-camera imaging devices and under the optical illumination provided by the one or more optical sources, wherein the one or more cryptographic keys are configured to be compared with one or more stored cryptographic keys to authenticate the object.

18. The optical system of claim 17, wherein the object dataset is converted from a plurality of optical images, wherein the plurality of optical images comprise multiple optical images acquired by the multiple micro-camera imaging devices with the optical illumination varied between each acquisition with different wavelengths of light with the object physically scanned to more than one location.

19. The optical system of claim 17, wherein the authentication further comprises information related to the optical illumination.

20. An optical system, comprising: more than one micro-camera imaging devices mechanically coupled to each other, each micro-camera imaging device configured to acquire optical images of a distinct region of an object; an illumination source containing one or more optical sources, each optical source configured to send an optical illumination to the object; and a processor configured to generate one or more dataset keys based on the optical images acquired by the more than one micro-camera and under the optical illumination sent by the one or more optical sources, wherein the one or more dataset keys are configured to provide a measure of authentication for the object.

21. The optical system of claim 20, wherein the processor is configured to store the one or more dataset keys, wherein the measure of authentication can be obtained by comparing the stored one or more dataset keys with newly acquired one or more dataset keys.

22. The optical system of claim 20, wherein the processor is configured to authenticate the object by comparing the one or more dataset keys with one or more stored dataset keys.